914 vs 911, No, not a race Options

[scrz914]

Ok, I know some of you drive/have 914s and 911s. As this is a 914 forum everyone, I'm sure, has a strong opinion about their 914s. I'd like to hear some. What are the advantages of the 914 over the 911. Why did you choose a 914? $$$?, the people?
I know that people tend to dog the 914. Since I bought my first 914 in October I have growing respect for it. But now I have a chance to get a 911 for a good price, but I still day dream about my 914. Hmm...maybe I should keep both...naw, too expensive.
Seriously, I'd like to hear what people think of 911s compared to the 914.

[ArtechnikA]

"Raw, plain and unrefined"... as compared to the 911 of the same years? Having had a 71E and a 914/6, I'd take the 914/6 any day.

How about this for the 911: Unbalanced, bloated, elitist and tailhappy.

well ... i have that very '71E now, and let me tell you, the more i get into it, the more i know why you didn't like it :-) ... the shell's fundamentally sound (sailed through its recent PA inspection) but all the 'stuff' was worn out from years of neglect and deferred maintenance that i know predated your brief ownership of this car. and since it's an 'E' it doesn't have antiroll bars which really hold it back.

as soon as the new spring plates and front torsion bars show up (still on backorder) i'll be going through all the suspension and i expect to find that the rear suspension bushes are totally shot --- the new polyurethane and monoball parts should address those issues nicely ...

so that particular car may not have been the very best representative example of an early 911's potential.

okay - i've owned all four permutations...

4-cyl in a 911 (912)
914.6
914.4
911

the original 912 (not the 1976 912E version) was light, nimble, reasonably economical. engine gave freely of what it had - which wasn't all that much, actually...

914.4 -- fun little roadster. mine was a 1,7 so the engine gave freely of what it had and the light weight and slippery aerodynamics made a bigger difference than you'd think from a such a small increase over the 912's 1,6 -- but the T-IV incorporated many things they learned from the early upright engines (not, however, how to make exhaust ports flow...) if you like a nimble, well-balanced, versatile and fun car, it's hard to go wrong with any 914.4. if you *really* feel you need more power, it puts you into an interesting price/performance tradeoff analysis pretty quickly...

914.6 -- IMO -- the ultimate car. the perfect combination of weasel and Godzilla, especially with the displacement bumped up a bit from its original level that was set to 1) use up the leftover 2,0 911 engines and 2) not make the 911 look bad. (lots more profit in the 911, a theme which continues to this day ...)

911 - well - that doesn't narrow it down much, because the very first 2,0-liter short wheel base 911's are nothing like what they call a 911 now, and there have been 40 years of changes, developments, modifications, and paradigm shifts through four decades... "early" 911's - those contemporaneous with 914 production - were still sports cars, through and through. AC on cars under 3,0 liters (which started in the US officially in 1976 with the Turbo) was still a novelty although they tried desperately to make it work on the 2,7's - often with disastrous results for a variety of reasons. with the SC the transition from 'sports car' to 'GT' (Grand Touring) was definitely underway. the cars got heavier, "more refined" (which meant that they did fewer things really well in order to do fewer things really badly). the Targa models have much in common with 914's -- both good and bad.

the 911 is more widely, generally, accepted, like it or not. the 914 will always be a niche, 'enthusiast's' car.

i'm driving my 911 now and it puts a smile on my face. i think once i'm through the suspension and have replaced all the worn-out stuff it'll be good to go for many, many years to come (especially if i can bump up the engine next winter ...). At some point it may make sense to sell this one -- possibly to raise cash for a house deal, possibly to raise cash to concentrate on the 914.6, possibly because we'll want to concentrate more effort on real racing and it will be time to buy a prepped car. this is a fun car and i like it a lot but i'm not attached to it.

the 914.6 - on the other hand - like my '53 1500N Coupe - i will keep forever...

what was your question?

oh - should you take advantage of the opportunity to get into a 'good price' 911... need to know more about it. the car i'm in now had many 'issues' but they're no more than what i was expecting or able to deal with. ALL older cars have issues! it can be astonishingly, frustratingly expensive to take them to a specialist with a blank check and say "make it right." if you can do the work yourself, are willing to do the research and legwork to learn who's got what parts and who are the "go-to" vendors, if you can prioritise the work projects so you can do what has to be done when it needs it and defer the "nice-to's" and avoid DWD - a 911 can be tremendously enjoyable.

i think every Porsche owner wants to - and should - have a 911 at least for a while. but they're not for everyone, and there's a lot of other perfectly fine choices for those who discover it's not to their taste; to each his own.

do your homework - read a copy of Frere's "the 911 Story" - the latest edition if you're looking at a car newer than 1976. check out the technical forums, go lurk or RennList's 911 list for a while.

because 911's are so versatile - you MUST ask and answer this question: what do you want to do with the car? is it a driver? a DE car? a TT car? an AX car? a concours car? a Club Race car? getting into a car like this without knowing what you want out, and/or trying and expecting it to do too many things well, will be a very expensive and frustratring experience. my 911 experience is going quite nicely because i had such a "use image" in mind when i bought it, and i am sticking to it. the fact that i'm putting more commuting miles on it than was the original plan has affected the order in which i do certain things, but The Plan has not changed...

have a Plan.